As a company with a flair for entertaining and spice, Terrapin Ridge Farms’ approach to business has been centered around fun, good relationships and quality products that takes dining to the next level. Continue reading to learn how Mark O’Brien leveraged RangeMe to land on Sprouts Farmers Market’s store shelves at the grand opening of their first store in Florida.
Good Times Had by All
If there is one word to describe Terrapin Ridge Farms, it is Fun.
“We are here to have fun. That means entertaining, cooking, and having a great time. When you keep it fun you keep it creative,” says Mark O’Brien, national sales manager for Terrapin Ridge Farms. “It’s what drives us forward.”
Terrapin Ridge Farms started in 1997 with one seemingly simple condiment–mustard. Mary O’Donnell, CEO of Terrapin Ridge Farms, bought the company in 2010 because she saw a lot of opportunity to expand its product lines. O’Donnell, who comes from a big family and brings a pop-up atmosphere with her wherever she goes, has expanded their product lines to include top sellers such as their hot pepper bacon jam.
“We are not your grandmother’s blueberry jam-type company,” O’Brien says. The company focuses on making products that can stand on their own, or take dishes to the next level. Their playful twist to products appeals to a wide range of consumers, as well as the independent retailers who stock the company’s products. Such appeal, in fact, that one retailer ordered five cases of the hot pepper bacon jam, and called two days later with an order for twenty cases, because she’d already sold out.
“When we can help a small business do that kind of volume, that’s what we are in it for,” O’Brien says. “When our small business people win, we win.”
Discovered by Sprouts
With their eyes set on expansion, Terrapin Ridge targeted Sprouts Farmers Market, a grocery chain with 250 stores in the US that focuses on making healthy living easy and affordable, as an ideal retailer to carry their product line.
Sprouts advised Terrapin Ridge to sign up for RangeMe to be considered–and the advice was well-heeded. Not only did RangeMe take away a lot of the pain in onboarding with a new retailer, O’Brien explains, but it also resulted in interested responses from Sprouts and a few other leading retailers.
The buyer who co
nnected with them on RangeMe was responsible for launching Sprouts’ first retail location in Florida. Being headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, had its benefit and made partnering with Sprouts Farmers Market an easy choice for Terrapin Ridge Farms. “People just love that local connection–we are literally headquartered down the road,” O’Brien says.
After the Tampa store’s soft opening, they sold out of product and ended up launching with twenty SKUs at that location.
Sit Down and Sign Up
“If I had advice for people I would tell them to sit down and sign up [for RangeMe]. Don’t ignore it. The faster you do it, the faster buyers will reach out to you,” O’Brien says. “Your products are up on RangeMe working for you everyday while you can be working on other things. It’s kind of like a booth set up online–you don’t have to sit behind it the whole time for business opportunities to start.”
As Terrapin Ridge Farms’ spice, fun and entertaining assortment makes their way to Sprouts shoppers, keep your eyes out for their products in a store near you.